DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer needs to monitor an AWS Glue ETL job that runs daily. The job sometimes fails due to missing partitions in the Data Catalog. The engineer wants to receive an alert when the job fails. What is the MOST operationally efficient way to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that CloudWatch metrics or log filters are the primary way to alert on Glue job failures, when EventBridge events are the most direct and efficient mechanism.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use AWS Glue job event notifications via Amazon EventBridge to trigger an AWS Lambda function that sends an Amazon SNS notification.
Amazon EventBridge can capture AWS Glue job state change events and route them to targets like Lambda or SNS. This provides immediate, event-driven notifications on job failures without polling or custom log parsing. It is the most operationally efficient method for alerting on Glue job failures, including those due to missing partitions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable AWS Glue job bookmarks and configure an Amazon CloudWatch Logs subscription filter to email the engineer on error patterns.
Why it's wrong here
Job bookmarks help track processed data but do not send alerts. CloudWatch Logs subscription filters can trigger on log patterns, but this requires parsing logs and is less direct than event-driven notifications. It also adds latency and complexity. This approach is not the most operationally efficient for immediate failure alerts.
- ✓
Use AWS Glue job event notifications via Amazon EventBridge to trigger an AWS Lambda function that sends an Amazon SNS notification.
Why this is correct
AWS Glue emits job state change events to Amazon EventBridge. You can create an EventBridge rule that matches Glue job state changes (e.g., FAILED, TIMEOUT) and targets a Lambda function or SNS topic directly. This is a serverless, operationally efficient approach that requires no polling and provides near-real-time alerts on job failures, including those caused by missing partitions.
- ✗
Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm on the Glue job's 'glue.driver.aggregate.numFailedTasks' metric and notify an Amazon SNS topic.
Why it's wrong here
The metric glue.driver.aggregate.numFailedTasks is specific to Apache Spark tasks within a Glue job, not the job's overall success or failure. It may not accurately reflect job failure due to missing partitions. CloudWatch alarms on this metric could trigger false positives or miss actual job failures, making it less reliable for alerting on job-level failures.
- ✗
Schedule a daily AWS Lambda function that calls the Glue GetJobRuns API and sends an email if the last run failed.
Why it's wrong here
Polling the Glue API daily introduces delay and requires custom code. It is not event-driven and may miss failures if the job runs multiple times or fails after the poll. This approach is less efficient and more error-prone than using EventBridge, which reacts immediately to state changes.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This DEA-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DEA-C01 exam.